Warming Hut
Team: Can Vu Bui, Lane Rick
Carousel is a playground folly, a colorful respite from the brilliant whiteness of a winter’s snow.
There are two certainties in the Canadian winter: that the windchill
makes it feel colder than it is, and the snow has an overwhelming power
to paint an environment entirely white. The former makes it hard for us
to socialize outdoors, while the latter robs us of color.
We imagine Carousel as a simple folly with a white envelope, that at
first approach, blends into the snowy landscape of the Red River.
Wood-framed much like a typical gazebo, the exterior is clad with a
white metal shell, but it is perforated and corrugated so the shell is
blurry: a colorful interior bleeds through the tiny apertures like a
hazy mirage in the desert of winter. As one comes nearer, the color
becomes more apparent, the folly is not so much white as it is
white-in-transition. Upon entering, the world is transformed. Painted in
a colorful gradient that mimics a summer sunset, we are enclosed from
the winds, shielded and directed to look up: that rare sharp blue sky by
day, the stars unfolded by night.